


Alone In A Crowd

by VitaLupum



Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VitaLupum/pseuds/VitaLupum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim makes a friend at college.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone In A Crowd

            Tim is alone.

            People swarm around him, bags slung over shoulders, mouths moving in time with the dull roar that filters in through his headphones. He doesn’t have music playing, but the thought of someone approaching him is so fantastically laughable that he feels he should at least make an excuse to himself for his exile.

            He has a booklet in his hands that has a map of the university campus, but he isn’t looking at it. He’s people-watching, figuring out life stories through their clothes, their bags, even the way they walk; he is reminded, in what would be to a normal human an amusing way, of some Disney song about wanting to be ‘out there’ with other people and yet being unable to. Instead, he glances around, and notices someone staring at him.

            She is a non-descript redhead talking to a non-descript brunette; he is sure he knows her from his old school, but he would not put a bet onto it. She looks away when she sees him staring, and he surreptitiously pulls out an earplug. Maybe she’ll come over and talk to him.

            “…really weird,” he hears, and pretends to be reading his pamphlet as she glances around again. “Yeah, Tim Wright.” The brunette asks something quietly, and she lets out a low laugh as Tim’s heart sinks horribly, like swallowing broken glass. “Yeah, he’s epileptic or something. Had a seizure in class when he was like, six.” She giggles. “In the actual  _middle_  of the classroom.” The brunette says something else, but Tim’s shoved his earpiece in again, shame building in his throat like a stone. And he doesn’t even understand  _why_  he is ashamed. If he was epileptic – if, god forbid, it were so simple and easy to treat – it would hardly be his fault. He feels hot, angry tears well up in his eyes, and swallows, blinking them away.

            It’s going to be the same this year. They can smell the  _weird_  on him, as if he has a sign reading ‘I am a freak, please leave me the fuck alone’ on his shirt. They don’t know him, but whilst they are content to talk to each other, nobody is desperate enough to stoop to talking to him. He is going to be alone for-

            “Hey.”

            He glances up, brown eyes wide, and there stands a guy with tousled brown hair and a bag of donuts. He looks mildly athletic, and Tim shifts aside, assuming he is in the way.

            “Sorry,” he mutters, and the guy sits next to him.

            “Did I interrupt your music?” the guy asks, and Tim shakes his head, pulling his earbuds out. “I’m Brian… you’re Tim, right? From 106?”

            Tim nods. This guy lives on his street, he remembers.

            “Why are you sitting alone?” Brian laughs, and Tim has a thousand answers he can’t bring himself to throw back into Brian’s face. “Come hang out with us,” he offers, and Tim looks to where a group of people is stood, all gathered around one person with a video camera. They look like they belong together, he thinks, lump in his throat growing a little, and then Brian is standing up and looking at him expectantly.

            “Sure thing,” Tim says, remembering to add a smile, and stands up, shooting a glance at the redhead, who is watching him in faint disgust. Fuck her. Maybe, just this once, things are going to go his way.


End file.
